Gap Made In the USA Campaign: Made In China

Apparently unfulfilled with the abuse the brand has already received in 2010, Gap has again put its reputation on the discount rack.

It seems the promotional materials for Gap’s holiday anti-hunger FEED campaign (the glitzy charity founded by presidential niece and future Ralph Lauren daughter-in-law, Lauren Bush) don’t match up with the actual materials.

As can be seen in the photo above (snapped by Thomas Martin, via imgur), Gap invites shoppers to “buy these limited edition bags and we’ll donate $5 to our nation’s school lunch programs.” Topping off the patriotic promotion is a “Made in USA” logo on the bags and in-store signage.

The only problem: the limited edition bags are made in China, as indicated on the tag, circled above. The timing couldn’t be worse, coming as Gap launches Project Reindeer, a social media-driven five-day holiday marketing push. Check out Bush’s Gap ad for FEED after the jump.[more]

Bush, a model turned co-founder of FEED Projects, is one of a number of quasi-celebrities in the Gap Want holiday campaign this year, in which they don seasonal garb and promote a charity to receive a donation from Gap for each “like” on its Facebook app. Here’s her pitch for FEED:

Update: thanks to Huffington Post for spotting and picking up this story — and interesting to see that 75% of respondents so far in its poll said this mislabeling would lead them not to buy the bag, which is a shame (as a commenter notes below) for FEED and Gap. What do you think?